South East Div One .
Ipswich Whirlwinds 97 .
Ben Harvey 17+3, Josh Brooke 17+2, Pierce Bacon 16+2, Lauren Jacobs 15+2, Lewis Roberts 15+1, Harrison Bacon 11+1, Phil Clarke 6+2 .
Great Blakenham 83 .
Lewis Osborne 24, Adam Peck 20+1, Chris Osborne 12, Steve Johnson 10+1, Leon Dix 7, Gavin Whitehouse 6, Terry Ashford 4 .
Referee. Bill Brooke (Suffolk) .
Great Blakenham made the short journey to local rivals Ipswich looking to upset the reigning champions for the second time this season and claim an unlikely double having lowered their colours earlier this campaign ,but the Whirlwinds were in no mood to let lightning strike twice and with a full set of riders to call upon set about restoring order to this season SE1.
Great Blakenham could call upon the likes of Osborne and Peck to lead their attack while it was good to see Chris Osborne in the team and would provide able support to the other two. The home side called upon Brooke ,Roberts and youngsters Harvey and Bacon with former British women champion Lauren Jacobs who was to post an impressive score.
The first nine heats were very close run heats with the lead changing hands as Blakenham were to give Ipswich a few headaches to deal with and at the break were only two points down , the second half unfortunately started to fall away from the away side as Ipswich pinpointed a weakness in their opponents and were to amass four maximum score lines to move into an commanding position. As so often the champions seem to save their best riding for the second set of nine as they have done so many times in the past , but this didn’t stop the very impressive Lewis Osborne from posting a maximum twenty four points and remain unbeaten all night. Young Leon Dix gave a good account of himself and his card didn’t really reflect the effort he put in but will be better for the experience and Chris Osborne showing he hasn’t loss his gating will only get stronger with more matches under his belt and will be a hand full for any team .
Ipswich Whirlwinds will be happy to have got back to winning ways and got another match under their belts as they look to close the gap on them above with matches in hand. The only down side of last night performance was the news that Leon Mower has decided to call time on his racing activities, hopefully just for the time being, he will be sorely missed not just for the Whirlwinds but the Ipswich Elite team where he has been an ever present ever since the Eagles first entered the league .
Heat Scores .
HT 1. 5-5 ,HT 2. 11-9, HT3. 16-14, HT4. 20-20, HT5. 23-27,HT6. 28-32, HT7. 34-36, HT8. 41-39,HT9. 46-44. HT10. 49-51, HT11. 54-56, HT12.61-59, HT13. 66-64, HT14.73-67, HT15. 80-70, HT16. 87-73, HT17. 92-78,HT18. 97-83 .